


Silent Through The Storm

by ShellyNelsonLahey



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: M/M, Mentioned Reggie Mantle, jugpea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:07:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShellyNelsonLahey/pseuds/ShellyNelsonLahey
Summary: Jughead Jones and Sweet Pea have been together for four years, going strong well after high school. But within the last few months, Sweet Pea has been acting different and one night Jughead stays up to confront Sweet Pea about why he sneaks off without telling him.
Relationships: Jughead Jones & Sweet Pea, Jughead Jones x Sweet Pea, Jughead Jones/Sweet Pea
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	Silent Through The Storm

**Author's Note:**

> This is a drabble I started at a point where I randomly got in the mood to write for Jugpea and I only just now finished it. I used two prompts:
> 
> J: “Did you cheat on me?”
> 
> S: “How could you ask me that?”
> 
> And originally this was about SP going to help Fangs out and Jughead thinking he’s cheating with Fangs but I scrapped that and wrote this instead and I love it a hell of a lot more
> 
> TW: There are mentions of abuse towards the end but it is minor
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Jughead snorted out of his descent into sleep by snapping his head up at the crack of roaring thunder. Squinting, he tried to see through the dark of his muted, lonely apartment in hopes that his boyfriend had come back during his eighth time dozing off. A bolt of lightning flashed through the blinds, lighting up his seafoam green eyes. If he wasn’t exhausted and could manage to capture it on his camera in time, he knew he could take a breathtaking photo. But he was much too upset and drowsy to actually find the will to attempt it.

The dull red numbers on the clock beside the couch read 2:56 pm, and he knew he was still alone. No Serpent jacket hung from the coat rack Alice Cooper had given them as a housewarming gift, and there was no switchblade or keys in the ceramic bowl his boyfriend created in ceramics class back in high school. Besides, from the last time he had obsessively checked the time, he had only closed his eyes for about twenty minutes.

“God, Sweet Pea, where the fuck are you?” Jughead whimpered quietly, rubbing his tired eyes. He wanted him to come home. He wanted to know he was safe, he wanted to know why he had left in the middle of the night after they had sex. This was the fifth time in two weeks, and Jughead was beginning to worry about his relationship. And his brain certainly didn’t let up—he couldn’t stop wondering if it was something he said, something he did, or maybe even something he didn’t do. Whatever it was, the not knowing was eating him alive.

Another crack of thunder. He winced, the spacing between strikes made him used to the minimal sound of rain pattering on the window, and the realization that his boyfriend was caught up in this storm with only a leather jacket dawned on him, which didn’t make it any better. His boyfriend was stubborn, and practically refused to wear any other kind of jacket because _“leather was cool”_ and _“it’ll protect me from everything”_ but in his experience he knew that wasn’t true. Jughead understood that Sweet Pea had never really had a family outside of the South Side Serpents and the jacket was all he really had to remind him of what he’s been through, but God he wished Sweet Pea would make an exception sometimes, especially now that they’d been out of high school for a few years now. He used to wear different jackets but recently over the last few months he was acting like taking it off meant he’d lose it forever.

And when the lightning cast an ephemeral white light across the entire room, he froze at the state of his sopping wet boyfriend trying to slip silently through the doorway behind the loud boom of thunder. “Pea.” Jughead breathed in relief. He was angry, yes, but more so relieved that he was alright. “You scared me.”

“Baby, what are you doing up?” Sweet Pea closed the door behind him and locked it, quickly kicking off his shoes and hanging up his jacket, then set his switchblade and keys into the bowl. The normal routine. Finally, he flicked on the light beside the couch where Jughead sat, previously in the mind numbing darkness. He was so used to it, he had to shield his eyes from the rays of the lightbulb. “It’s three in the morning, Jones.”

“You’re asking me?” Jughead’s eyebrows shot up in an incredulous manner. “You’re the one that snuck out while I was asleep. Why didn’t you wake me, let me know where you were going?”

“I didn’t want to bother you,” Sweet Pea wiggled his rough fingers in between Jughead’s to grab a hold of them and give him a reassuring squeeze. Then, he placed a short, sweet kiss on the boy’s forehead. “It was nothing, okay?”

“Nothing?” Jughead scoffed, shaking his head. He didn’t believe it for one second. The dark thoughts that swirled its way into his brain while sitting in the dark for hours on end were beginning to seep out, and against his better judgement, he allowed it. “Something about you has been off tonight… hell, for the past few months. But I don’t know what.”

An exasperated sigh escaped Sweet Pea’s lips; he sat down gently on the arm of the couch. He knew how it looked, and that he had done this multiple times over the course of the last few months like Jughead had noted, but it wasn’t what he was thinking.

Jughead locked his jaw and scooted his body as far left onto the couch as he could, wishing his mind would shut up and stop feeding him scenarios he didn’t want to think about. But at the same time, how could he not? Earlier, him and Sweet Pea had sex but he seemed out of it, like his mind was elsewhere. When Jughead asked Sweet Pea about what was going on inside his head, he said the same thing, _“nothing,”_ and after Jughead had fallen asleep, he groggily woke up to Sweet Pea leaving. Jughead tended to jump to conclusions, and considering his mind was making assumptions as to _why_ his boyfriend was acting weird, he was filled to the brim with malcontent and jealousy.

_Maybe he’s cheating on you. Maybe he’s fallen out of love with you. Maybe you’re just not good enough for him anymore, he found someone better._ Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe… the ongoing slur of sentences were continuously feeding him insecure ideas that he knew probably weren’t true. Suddenly, “just tell me… are you cheating on me?” stumbled out of his mouth and it felt like somebody else was controlling him and his actions and he was just as shocked as his boyfriend was.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted it and wished he could take it back. Even more so when Sweet Pea looked at him with big, glossy brown eyes. “W-What?” He moved away, now standing a couple of feet away wearing an expression that Jughead read as heartbroken disappointment. It pained Jughead to see how hurt his boyfriend was at the accusation, and he desperately begged the universe to rewind time back a couple seconds prior so he could have kept his jealousy and curiosity from getting the best of him. “How could you ask me that?”

But there was no way back from this, he asked Sweet Pea if he was cheating on him and the trust they had built up over the years was most likely gone in one swift move. But the only way through those nagging voices in the back of his head was by battling them head on. This conversation, as dreadful as it was and as much as neither of them wanted to talk about it, was bound to happen at some point, even if it may lead to the end of their relationship. “I… I didn’t mean for it to come out like that, but now that it’s out, there’s no going back.”

“Clearly, because you think I cheated on you.” Sweet Pea gulped down the hot bile that closed off his throat, then crossed his arms and looked away from Jughead in an attempt to hide the tears that welled in his stormy eyes. He sucked in a deep breath to steady his voice before speaking again. “We have a lot to talk about.”

Jughead bit down on his lower lip, trying to gain the courage to speak. He was exhausted, and felt like he was about to empty the contents of his stomach, but he took a moment or two to shake everything off and start the conversation off by explaining why his brain thought Sweet Pea was cheating on him. Have to start at the beginning, right? “We had sex earlier, and you were different than usual. Distant, I guess you could say. And while I was sleeping, you left like a bat out of hell without telling me and I sat here waiting for you to get back.”

“You didn’t have to wait—”

“Don’t interrupt me, SP. I’m explaining myself, please let me do so,” Jughead chastised, just wanting to get his side over with while he had the nerve to say it without breaking down. “You left, and you don’t come back for hours. You don’t answer your phone, and I sit here in the mind-numbing darkness with my brain going wild over what could possibly make you leave in the middle of the night during a storm without waking me up. And this isn’t even the first time it’s happened, either.”

“How could you think i’m cheating on you? You know how much I fucking love you, Jones,” Sweet Pea cried, wiping underneath his eyes. “I know i’ve been acting a little weird for a while but it’s not what you think, I swear.”

“If you’re not going out in the middle of a fucking storm to get some dick, what are you doing?” Jughead pleaded, grabbing two fistfulls of Sweet Pea’s damp shirt and bringing him closer to him. He begged, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Please, my mind is making me imagine _things_ and I can’t take it anymore.”

Sweet Pea was crying just as heavily, if not more. “Promise me you won’t be mad.”

Well, that certainly didn’t help the sick feeling that took over Jughead’s body. “Mad? Mad about what?”

“ _Promise me_.”

Jughead gulped down the insecurity and nodded, “I promise I won’t be mad, Pea.” He let go of Sweet Pea’s shirt, like a sign of good faith that he’s being truthful, and stepped back calmly. “What’s is it?”

“I found out a few months ago that I have a sibling. Same dad, different mom. He’s in a bad situation and he calls on me for help because our dad won’t lay a hand on me,” Sweet Pea explained hastily in a slew of words. He knew by the furrowed eyebrows of his boyfriend that he was confused, which he couldn’t blame him for. Sweet Pea helped clarify a little bit: “I found my real dad, my real last name… Noah Mantle.”

Jughead’s blood ran cold. “My-My high school bully? You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I knew you’d react like this, and I wasn’t ready to tell anyone because i’m still coming to terms with it myself,” Sweet Pea closed the distance between him and Jughead and soothingly caressed the boy’s cheek. “I promise you, i’d never cheat on you, Jones. I love you.”

“I-I love you too.” Jughead was still in shock. He shook himself out of it after a few moments and gazed up into his boyfriend’s eyes. “I’m sorry I thought you were cheating. It’s just… you leaving in the middle of the night without telling me, acting like you were harboring a secret… my anxiety got the best of me.”

“Are you taking your meds?”

“Yes. That doesn’t mean I stop having thoughts, Pea,” Jughead murmured humorously. To signify he was changing the subject back to Sweet Pea being related to Reggie Mantle, he cleared his throat and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “So… when you said that your dad would never lay a hand on you…”

“He’s abusive, and Reggie is trying to move out and get away from his influence, but he can’t leave his mom. I’ve been going over and basically mediating situations that arise as best as I can,” Sweet Pea sighed. “Maybe you can subtly ask your dad what you can do to make sure his ass is put in jail, or something?"

“Yeah. Yeah, no, I’ll give my dad a visit tomorrow morning when I don’t feel like i’m about to pass out from exhaustion and see what I can do without naming names,” Jughead nodded. Even if the victim was the guy who used to make Jughead want to disappear sometimes, he wanted to help. Not only was he his boyfriend’s step brother, but it was the right thing to do. Nobody deserved that. Hell, he had a similar experience growing up, but it rarely became physical. Now, things have taken a turn for the better but he still remembers, and he wishes someone had done something. Jughead didn’t want to think about his past right now. Clearing his throat, he decided to take his mind off of it and try to settle back down to sleep. “Want some tea before bed? Veronica gave me some chamomile a week ago and there’s still some tea bags left.”

“I’d love some.” Sweet Pea placed a sweet, tender kiss on top of Jughead’s forehead. “And maybe we can also try to smoke the peace pipe between you and Reggie? It has been years since high school, Jug.”

Jughead stopped in his tracks at the counter, turning to his boyfriend with a small smile. “It’ll go much smoother if we do actually have a pipe to smoke and pass around. Less tension, yeah?”

“I think Toni recently put up a peace themed pipe in her smoke shop so we can quite literally smoke the peace between you two,” Sweet Pea snickered, even though he was dead serious. “I’m just glad you’re willing to give him a try. He really isn’t that bad, not like he was in high school.”

“I love you, Pea. And you’re right, it has been years since high school and we’ve all grown in some way or another. Of course i’d give him another try,” Jughead smiled softly. “But if he mocks my dark aesthetic ever again, I will be using the video that went around senior year against him.”

Sweet Pea nodded, finding that fair. He wound his arms around Jughead’s waist lovingly. “Okay. Just don’t bring up my video, please. I don’t need anyone remembering the time I drunkenly gave Toni and Fangs a lap dance to thank Fangs for the one he did on me as a dare.”


End file.
